Yoga Pants Made Out of Plastic and Why You Should Care

A few weeks ago I attended an outdoor yoga event in Denver that had a bunch of vendors to check out after the yoga class. So, I did...and at some point I met a woman selling clothes. We were chatting it up about where the clothes were sold when she said, “the H2OM leggings by The OM Collection are made out of recycled plastic bottles.”

I was pretty surprised. The pants felt soft and sort of silky – just like other pants I have seen at Target or in the lobby of a studio AND they were made out of plastic. Obviously, I loved it.

This brings me to my next thought. Speaking of plastic, have you heard about The Great Pacific Garbage Patch?? Holy sh*t. I only recently learned about it from a friend and then from watching the documentary Plastic Paradise. Apparently, there is an “island” twice the size of Texas in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that is compiled of (primarily) plastic waste. Yeah. Ya know how plastic is non-biodegradable/never really goes away? It has to go somewhere. And it’s collecting in the ocean and in the stomachs of the seafood we eat.

I found these shared stats to be impactful as well:

-Over the last ten years humans have produced more plastic than during the whole last century

-50 percent of the plastic created each year is used just once and thrown away

-On average it takes 500 to 1000 years for a plastic object like a water bottle to decompose

-This means that all of the plastic that has ever been produced has not degraded yet

-Lastly, only 9% of the total plastic waste created in the US in 2013 got recycled (wtf?)

If you have Netflix, I highly suggest watching the documentary. If not, I would probably give you my password for a day.